In the shoe industry, conventional lacing currently entails that the upper has a top longitudinal opening under which a tongue is arranged.
The flaps of the opening have a plurality of eyelets, or hooks or shoe loop hooks for the passage of a lace.
The lace is inserted in an alternated manner through the eyelets or hooks, first of one flap and then of the other one, and then the free ends are located at the foot insertion opening.
Thus, pulling the ends of the lace tends to close the flaps toward each other, tightening the shoe around the foot of the user.
In order to keep the shoe tight in this manner, the ends of the lace are usually tied to each other.
The widely known drawbacks of this fastening solution consist in that it requires the use of both hands to lock the laces by means of a knot and the widespread need to provide a knot that is easy to loosen, in order to facilitate the loosening of the fastening action of the shoe, for example if it has to be removed from the foot of the user.
Moreover, during use of the shoe, the knot, particularly if it is easy to undo, tends to loosen, fully to the disadvantage of the comfort and effectiveness of the fit.
Vice versa, an excessive tension applied to the lace and to the knot may cause an undesired and unpleasant pressure on the foot.
Moreover, lacing solutions are known which use clips or chokers that allow quick fastening by traction and subsequent reversible locking of the laces.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,564,670, for example, discloses a lace locking device according to which the two ends of the lace are threaded through a one-way device by choking.
In this device, the free ends of the lace are threaded through a diverging channel in which a perimetrically toothed wheel is accommodated.
The wheel is supported so that it can slide along a guide that is longitudinal to the channel.
Each lace passes between a side of the wheel and a wall of the channel.
The wheel can be moved along the sliding seat toward the exit of the channel, which has a wider opening, in order to allow the sliding of the laces to loosen the lacing, or toward the entrance of the channel, in order to choke them against the walls, preventing their disengagement in order to keep the lacing fastened.
Such devices ensure constant lacing and obviate the problem of the loosening and unfastening of knotted lacings.
However, although such devices are appreciated, they suffer considerable drawbacks, particularly when used in sports shoes.
The lace, once it has been tightened and tensioned, in fact has a residual portion that remains loose beyond the clip or locking device.
This loose portion is considered an important hindrance and is also a source of danger for the user because it might catch in a foreign object while walking or, worse still, during the practice of a sports activity.
Moreover, the protrusion of the loose portion of the lace from the shoe is poorly appreciated in terms of the esthetic contribution that it provides.
Currently, solutions are known which are intended to allow the concealment of this loose portion of the lace.
In these solutions generally a pocket is provided, for example defined on the end of the tongue, where the loose portion of the lace beyond the locking device or the clip is accommodated.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,473,999, for example, discloses a shoe in which a hood-like lace storing pocket open toward the locking device is provided on the upper portion of the tongue.
In this case the clip, or the locking device, and the loose portion of the lace may both be covered by the hood-like pocket that accommodates them during use of the shoe.
Moreover, US2006/0000116 discloses a device that is adapted to hold a shoe to the foot of the user.
Such device comprises a shaped plate that overlaps the portion of the upper that is adapted to cover the metatarsal region of the foot of the user.
A lace is anchored to the tip of the shoe and guided through passages provided in the plate and d-ring or hooks provided on the side of the upper.
The loose ends of the lace are guided at the front edge of the foot insertion opening by means of a clip which is fixed to the upper, which comprises thereat a pocket adapted to accommodate, by hiding them, the lace and the clip.
Such solutions lead to products that are uncomfortable in use, because of the bulk of the pocket filled with the ends of the lace and with the clip or locking device, and are heavy.
Moreover, positioning of the lace and of the clip or locking device in the pocket is laborious and further generally requires two hands in order to be performed.
Use is even more difficult if the user wears gloves that hamper the handling of the device.
Likewise, there are devices provided with a device for winding the lace which is arranged generally behind the heel region of the shoe.
Such devices, though allowing to avoid loose lace portions that protrude from the shoe, allowing effective storage of the lace, however are extremely complex and require numerous rotations of the lace winding spool in order to obtain a satisfactory lacing.